Reflecting on whether altering scene details might remove its sorrowful impression, I reined my horse to a dark, unruffled tarn near the dwelling, shuddering at the inverted images. What does the word tarn mean? Veldu eitt ?
Show answer Hide answer
Answer: B. A small mountain lake
Explanation
A tarn is accurately defined as a small mountain lake or pool typically formed by ancient glacial activity. In Gothic literature, writers utilize such bleak geographical features to enhance gloomy and ominous moods. The narrator's shuddering reaction highlights the psychological dread associated with dark and unruffled water bodies. Glacial tarns are commonly found nestled in high-altitude cirques carved out by moving sheets of ice. Edgar Allan Poe frequently employed desolate landscapes and dark tarns to symbolize troubled human mental states. Gothic vocabulary often incorporates archaic or specialized regional terms to create evocative and eerie settings.
A bird is a feathered flying animal, which makes no sense in the context of a dark water body. A wide river describes a flowing waterway rather than a contained mountain tarn or glacial pool. A high cliff is a steep rock face, whereas the text explicitly describes a body of water.
- Subject
- English
- Category
- English Literature
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
Related questions
Q1. In which narrative from The Dubliners does snow play a significant role ?
Show answer Hide answer
Answer: C. “The Dead”
Snow plays a deeply symbolic and unifying role in the final paragraphs of the famous story The Dead. The concluding imagery features snow falling softly across the entire island of Ireland, uniting the living and dead. J...
Q2. Motivated by Satan’s triumph over humanity, Sin and Death build what structure ?
Show answer Hide answer
Answer: C. a bridge from hell to earth
Milton describes this specific engineering feat in Paradise Lost to facilitate Satan's earthly journey. Sin and Death construct the broad highway directly from the gates of hell up to our world. This monumental bridge co...
Q3. In what year did Edmund Spenser release his poem The Shepheardes Calender ?
Show answer Hide answer
Answer: B. 1579
Edmund Spenser launched his brilliant literary career by publishing The Shepheardes Calender in 1579. This landmark pastoral work established his reputation as the premier vernacular poet of the Elizabethan age. The coll...
Q4. What sources inspired Toni Morrison during the creation of Beloved ?
Show answer Hide answer
Answer: D. Slave narratives.
Toni Morrison conducted extensive historical research into documented accounts written by escaped slaves. These authentic narratives provided the visceral emotional and factual foundation for the harrowing plot of Belove...
Q5. In what year was Christopher Marlowe’s play The Jew of Malta first staged ?
Show answer Hide answer
Answer: D. 1592
Historical records indicate that Christopher Marlowe’s play The Jew of Malta was first performed around 1592. The Rose Theatre staged the production during the height of the Elizabethan theatrical boom in London. This pe...
Q6. Jack London’s story “To Build a Fire” incorporates foreshadowing, a technique defined as_____________?
Show answer Hide answer
Answer: C. It contained clues to events yet to happen.
Foreshadowing is formally defined as a literary technique that plants subtle clues regarding future story events. Jack London expertly utilizes early warning signs in his harsh wilderness tale to hint at the tragic concl...